Welcome to Omokoroa Country Estate

It has been a while since our last newsletter so there is much to catch up on. It is now Winter and the cold has settled in so make yourself a nice hot drink, sit in a comfy chair and enjoy our Omokoroa Country Estate Winter Newsletter – click here to download.  

We are delighted, at Omokoroa Country Estate to host our annual Art and Craft Showcase on the new date Sunday 18th April, 10am-4pm. After several postponements this event is now going ahead. Come along and see what our amazing village has to offer. We will have tea and coffee available as well as a resident-run sausage sizzle (gold coin). There will be art for sale and you’ll have the opportunity to explore our extensive grounds and amenities at your leisure. So come along and join in the fun – everyone’s welcome! For more information contact Emma on (07) 548 1170 or sales@ocestate.co.nz

The annual Spring Garden Ramble at OCE highlights the gorgeous gardens and invites the local community and prospective residents to view OCE and its environment. This year’s event on Sunday 11 October was, once again, a great success. Around 150 people came through the estate, enjoying a relaxed look at what OCE has achieved and has to offer. The OCE gardeners, James and Graham, led tours every half hour and answered a myriad of questions. Three resident gardeners acted as ambassadors giving private tours. Golf buggies enabled people with limited mobility to experience a lot more of the 10-hectare estate. The event also showcased the talents of residents with art in various mediums, rock polishing, embroidery, cross stitch, wood work, quilting, model cardmaking and knitting on display. The homemade baking by generous residents was enthusiastically received. As Sales Manager, Emma Norton remarked, “This is so different to a catered morning tea as you can taste the love and it really speaks to what our village is all about.” Outdoor activities included golf croquet and bowls on the green; and indoors – snooker, bolivia and mah-jong. The OCE marching team attracted a crowd to their brilliant display. Free avocados were just the icing on the cake for an event that generated such positive feedback Emma is already working on ideas for next year!  

HOW THEY MET After a couple of years on his OE in England, working hard and enjoying life to the full, Brick seized an opportunity to return back to New Zealand with two others on a small sailing boat. However, it soon became apparent that the skipper was a bit of a rogue, and Brick jumped ship with one of the other crew when they docked on the Spanish Mediterranean coast. He made his way back to his old flat in north London at Bounds Green thinking that he could bunk down there for a while with the Kiwis he had previously shared it with. Unfortunately for him, his place had already been taken by a young New Zealand nurse who had just arrived to commence her own OE. Her name was, of course, Lorraine! Obviously, there was no room for him; Brick had to find digs elsewhere. But they had caught one another’s eye. Later that year, they met again at a Guy Fawkes function; when Cupid really struck. Eventually, they found a flat and lived together for the next two years in London. Brick had been previously employed planting large mature trees in the Midlands around Coventry. He continued to do this work, this time around Heathrow and St Paul’s Cathedral. Having completed her three year’s Nursing Training Course down at Christchurch General Hospital in 1962, Lorraine eventually decided she could easily find work as a nurse in London. She sailed to England in 1967 and, through a nursing agency, secured a position looking after the elderly wife of the British Ambassador to France, Lord Harvey. Lady Harvey’s best friend was Winston Churchill’s widow, Clementine and Lorraine became well acquainted with both of them. She was even requested to accompany them both to Lord Harvey’s eventual funeral at Westminster Abbey! This was one of many interesting jobs Lorraine had in London. FAMILY LIFE IN NEW ZEALAND In late 1969, Brick and Lorraine returned to New Zealand. They were married in March 1970 in Blenheim, Lorraine’s home town where her parents were living. They then went north to settle in Whangarei where Brick’s family, including his three sisters, lived. During the next 25 years Brick was employed by the Whangarei Fertilizer Works and rose to become their Chief Purchasing Officer of supplies. Lorraine was quickly employed by Whangarei Hospital in their premature baby unit where she helped deliver two or more babies a day. Many of the babies were premature because they were twins or triplets. Lorraine has very fond memories of the pleasure of successfully delivering them and the amazing names often bestowed upon the infants such as Choice, Chance, and Chosen. Another set were called Poison, Torture, and Lethal (two girls and a boy). One mother, whose surname was Hauraki, called her daughter Radio! On one occasion, she delivered a very small baby and thought that there could be one more to come. When she successfully delivered the second infant, the father exclaimed to the mother “They…

Omokoroa Country Estate invites you to attend our second Spring Garden Ramble – 11 October 2020, 10am-2pm. Spring has sprung at our Village so come and join us for our annual Garden Ramble. Spread over just under 10 hectares our gardens are blooming and we would love for you to see them. Throughout the day there’ll be guided tours with our gardeners either on foot or in the golf buggy, a coffee cart, marching display, artists working, the opportunity to win dinner for 2 at Somerset Cottage, home-made baking by our residents, music and much much more. Do join us, it’s going to be a wonderful day out!

David Olds and his cat Chloe are a common sight at the OCE community gardens. “When Chloe sees me putting on my boots, she pricks her ears and trots after me down to the gardens,” he laughs. Chloe won the hearts of David and Barbara Olds at the SPCA and has since won many more fans on the estate. The Olds, originally from the South Island, have lived in Omokoroa over 45 years and at OCE for 17. Interestingly it was David’s father, a local minister, who saw the need for a retirement village, discovered that the Precious family farm was available for development and piqued the interest of Fraser Sanderson who was thinking along exactly the same lines. The rest is history! David enjoyed a career as a representative for several major book publishers, spending his leisure time with his family on the Omokoroa waterfront, sailing and gardening. Since moving to OCE, gardening has taken over and David and Chloe are a regular fixture at their plot. “It’s all part of the community that is OCE,” says David. “We go down for half an hour’s pottering, get into conversation with some of the other 30 or so residents with plots and soon a couple of hours has disappeared. But that is the joy of retirement!” The gardens were set up by OCE management on a tract of unbuildable land with fertile volcanic soil. They are very co-operative, all gardeners sharing knowledge, implements and the results of their labours. “We grow mainly vegetables,” says David, “though daffodils and other flowers do pop up to brighten our gardens.” The group got a boost a few years ago when OCE won the Community Garden section of a NZ Gardener magazine competition. “We got a shed, tools, wheelbarrows, plants and fertilizers as our prize,” David recalls. Russell Jones is the plot coordinator and Property Manager, Trevor Goldstone, also gets called in on occasion. Everyone wins from the gardens as surplus vegetables are left in the mail room for OCE residents to help themselves. Barbara Olds has served on the Residents’ Committee and both appreciate belonging to the OCE community. They attended the Village Centre re-opening after refurbishment and David is already relishing watching the rugby with fellow residents on the big screen there.